After an agonising delay, Helen Ballentine aka Skullcrusher‘s debut EP Skullcrusher is released today via Secretly Canadian. Having already shared the excellent “Places/Plans” and “Day of Show”, today she’s sharing a video for the last ‘proper’ song to be released from the EP, “Trace”. Ballentine says about the song:
“I wrote ‘Trace’ about my last relationship. It represents the darkness of that relationship but also feels like a celebration of all the positive changes that followed. It was also one of my favorite songs to make. I recorded it with my current partner Noah and it was the last song we did for the EP. We finished it in one day at my home studio. We didn’t have any idea how it would turn out when we started, we just kind of improvised all the parts and ultimately kept most of what we recorded. It was a really special day for me because I had just finished my first project and come so far from the period of my life ‘Trace’ is written about.”
You can hear that more positive outlook immediately in “Trace” as compared to the previous singles. Plucks of banjo and light trills of piano float atop cooling breezes of synth, while Ballentine’s voice and guitar hum diligently at the centre. It is the sound of her overcoming, and realising her newfound freedom in the wake of the old relationship – and with a lightness of touch, she sweeps us up in that mood.
The video for “Trace” was created by Silken Weinberg and Jeremy Reynoso, and features Ballentine and friends in fantastical, Medieval robes, frollicking about, kind of like a Ren fair.
Skullcrusher’s debut self-titled EP is out today on Secretly Canadian. Follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
